Tom Brady lashes out at NFL Network crew for comments about Matt Cassel

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Tom Brady lashes out at NFL Network crew for comments about Matt Cassel

FOXBORO - On Monday, Tom Brady [stats] lashed out at the NFL Network crew that came down hard on backup Matt Cassel during Sunday night’s broadcast of the Patriots [team stats]’ preseason game against Tampa Bay.

Yesterday, Cassel chimed in with his two cents.

Neither quarterback was pleased with how analysts Sterling Sharpe and Marshall Faulk were overly critical of Cassel’s performance in the 27-10 loss.

Yesterday, Sharpe defended his harsh commentary, in which he said Cassel was “in the battle of his life” and that the Patriots couldn’t be “too comfortable” with their backup QB situation.

“I didn’t mean anything negatively, or maliciously, but from my point of view, here’s a guy who’s been in the system four years, and he’s in a quarterback battle,” said Sharpe, the former Green Bay Packers receiver. “You just thought things would look a little differently. I think that performance said something. I don’t know if my criticism was that harsh, except I just expected him to play better, especially when you’ve been around as long as he has and you’re in a battle for your job.”

Brady, who missed Sunday’s game with an injured foot, went to bat for Cassel during an interview with WEEI on Monday.

“Watching Matt (Sunday) night, hearing all the criticism, I don’t even know where that was coming from,” he said. “That was so far from what I was watching. The quarterback has a lot of responsibility out there. I thought Matt was making good decisions. He was really decisive with his throws. Was every throw perfect? No. But that doesn’t happen so often anyway.

“I see Matt every day in practice and the improvement he makes. I love what I see in Matt. I have a lot of confidence in Matt . . . for the three guys sitting in the booth, I thought it was unfair to criticize the way they were criticizing, because I don’t think they really knew what was happening.”

Sharpe wasn’t surprised at the arrows Brady slung his way and understood the QB’s defense of a teammate.

Yet that didn’t change his feelings on the in-game analysis.

“I’m not going to disagree with Tom’s assessment of Matt Cassel. I can’t. I’m not there every day,” Sharpe said when reached by phone yesterday. “But I would still say my criticism of Matt Cassel in that football game was based on the offense not having any shape or form. I’m putting all that on him. I’m not looking at the offensive line being out. I’m not looking at the running backs. I’m just looking at a guy who’s in a quarterback battle and looks this dull from where we were in the booth. That was an opportunity for him to distance himself a little bit. And he didn’t.”

Cassel, meanwhile, claimed he hasn’t heard the broadcast. However, he still had a message for Sharpe and Faulk.

“I don’t know why they are particularly harsh,” he said. “A lot of those guys are ex-players, and they understand how difficult this game is and how hard you prepare week in and week out, and so when they’re so critical, it’s interesting to me because those guys were in the same shoes at one point in their career, and they should understand how hard it is to go out there and perform each and every week.”

As a player, Sharpe said he didn’t speak with the media because of some of the criticisms that were aimed at him. Yet as an analyst, he’s being paid to provide commentary the way he sees it.

“My criticisms were based on the fact the offense hasn’t flowed in the two (preseason) games Matt has been in. And based on the injuries, there’s a chance, if Tom were to go down, there’s a chance Matt’s going to be (the) quarterback, and I think all of us watching are curious to see what that offense would look like without Tom,” Sharpe said. “Sure, he had a few drops in there, but when the offense struggles like that, I gave a lot of the criticism to Matt.”

Sharpe was surprised to see the Pats’ largely a vertical offense resort to safe, short passes after Cassel was nearly picked off on his first passing attempt.

“It looked as though the passing offense made a change, as a confidence-building thing with some of the throws for Matt,” Sharpe said. “I could be way off on that. Maybe I missed the boat, and if so, I apologize. But from a player’s perspective, I’m looking at it like, he’s already been in the situation for three years now and he’s in a quarterback battle with a rookie and a guy without much experience? If he’s in a battle, you’d expect him to win it. . . . This was his opportunity to separate himself from the other guys. He has to show why he is the No. 2 guy in New England. So I put more pressure on Matt to perform than I did (Kevin) O’Connell. You bet I did.”

If you watched any of the telecast, you would know that Sharpe and Faulk were overly negative about everything,

starting with talking about Brady not playing while showing clip after clip of him taking shots in the Super Bowl and the AFC championship, implying that his current injury was the lingering effect of his injury suffered int he playoffs last postseason. It was not, and Brady had to correct that misrepresentation on Monday morning. I'm sure that ticked him off that he had to do that, so he remarked about the other aspects of the coverage.

I didn't really feel that Cassell did much that was impressive, though, so I wasn't bothered by that criticism.

Brady has a history of standing up and defending teammates who are criticized, though, an attribute that seems to help team chemistry.

I personally don't care either way I just found it rather amusing. I mean I'm sure there are Pats fans that think Cassel sucks regardless. So they were probably not nearly as offended as the Pats appear.

I didn't want to start a new thread on it, but the Patriots offensive line injury situation could become a serious issue to watch, and is why I wouldn't mind seeing TB miss the entire preseason.

-Neal and Ross have been on the PUP list since training camp began.
-Yates, Light, O'Callaghan, and Hochstein have suffered injuries in camp and none are apparently practicing yet. Because the Patriots are so tight-lipped about injuries, it's hard to say who will be back and when.
-Four replacements, Clement, Stokes, Bauta, and McMahon, were signed, either got injured and were lost for the year or were so ineffective that they got cut.
-Kaczur has the legal issue and might even face a suspension.
-Two new guys have recently been signed: Welbourn, and Flynn, who were starters elsewhere last year but are a little old.

This bears watching, but could certainly put a kink in the expected plan to run the football more often this year. I could see a return to a dink and dunk offense to keep TB healthy unless the OL gains cohesiveness quickly.

I personally don't care either way I just found it rather amusing. I mean I'm sure there are Pats fans that think Cassel sucks regardless. So they were probably not nearly as offended as the Pats appear.

He does suck. It is funny because his stature in the pocket makes him look just like Brady..til you see him throw the ball. Both of our backup QBs are pretty bad but at least O'Connell is a rookie. Cassel doesn't really have an excuse other then that he just lacks the talent and poise to be a good NFL QB.

And I am worried more about our defense than our OLine. Defense has looked incredibly flat so far in the preseason. I know its the preseason, but we had alot of our starters out there and they were getting ran on and thrown on by Brian Griese and Scrubs McGee. I have no problem returning to the dink and dump offense + a good running game as I think that is what will win you games...but you definitely need your defense to step up if that is the case.

"We can't be the Patriots. The Patriots, they epitomize the whole team concept. Those guys are all about team and that's it. We're not them. We are a team that has a bunch of names, a bunch of personalities and a bunch of youth.

Later asked to clarify his comments, which seemed to knock his own team he added:

"We can't be those guys. We have to be ourselves. We have to find a way to make it work and embody the whole team concept, being the Dallas Cowboys and not how they did it out there in New England.

As long as we kick the egos out the door and come together as a team, we'll be fine. We have enough names to really do whatever it is we need to do, but there's a flip side to that. You've got enough names to take us to the next level, and you've got enough names to tear this thing down."

top-to-bottom commitment to excellence
teamwork
lack of self-promotion
steely-eyed focus
demand for player intelligence and responsibility
team fiscal responsibility
community involvement

Media driven statement. This is the aim of every NFL team. The Patriots just were better than everyone else. These types of comments embody the identity of the Patriots during their first Brady Super Bowl, because they had no runaway stars, but cohesively as a team everyone was solid. The truth is this is a dirty team. I'm with Duke, I'm tried of people licking Patriot ***. Screw the Patriots, god please let another truly deserving team stomp their ***, so broken record media, repeater guy can think for himself again.

top-to-bottom commitment to excellence
teamwork
lack of self-promotion
steely-eyed focus
demand for player intelligence and responsibility
team fiscal responsibility
community involvement

I hear ya. Those are also typically traits of a Rooney team. (Except for the occasional mouthy/ self promoting Allpro linebacker that keeps things interesting...) My beloved Steelers would likely have three Super Bowl rings this decase if not for the Patriots demonstrating all of that - and more - during two AFC Title games in Pittsburgh.

As much as I would like to find something legitamately wrong with the Patriots, their teamwork, focus, preparation, and clutch play all decade long has been damn impressive. (And that makes the Giants' Super Bowl performance even more impressive, IMO.)

Why do the things that we treasure most, slip away in time
Till to the music we grow deaf, to God's beauty blind
Why do the things that connect us slowly pull us apart?
Till we fall away in our own darkness, a stranger to our own hearts
And life itself, rushing over me
Life itself, the wind in black elms,
Life itself in your heart and in your eyes, I can't make it without you

I hear ya. Those are also typically traits of a Rooney team. (Except for the occasional mouthy/ self promoting Allpro linebacker that keeps things interesting...) My beloved Steelers would likely have three Super Bowl rings this decase if not for the Patriots demonstrating all of that - and more - during two AFC Title games in Pittsburgh.

As much as I would like to find something legitamately wrong with the Patriots, their teamwork, focus, preparation, and clutch play all decade long has been damn impressive. (And that makes the Giants' Super Bowl performance even more impressive, IMO.)

Are those hardy characteristics going to continue under a Druckenmiller ownership?

Druckenmiller has said that he wants Dan Rooney to run the team as long as Dan Rooney is alive.

After that, its anyone's guess.

Why do the things that we treasure most, slip away in time
Till to the music we grow deaf, to God's beauty blind
Why do the things that connect us slowly pull us apart?
Till we fall away in our own darkness, a stranger to our own hearts
And life itself, rushing over me
Life itself, the wind in black elms,
Life itself in your heart and in your eyes, I can't make it without you

Sorgi and Cassel are the most irrelevant backup QBs in the entire league.

They both make excellent clipboard holders and they can wear a mean backwards ball cap.

Does anyone know if Sorgi is the QB for the scout team or not, I assume he is because he was the only QB for a couple of years. I'm just wondering because I read somewhere that Gray was 'Peyton Manning' while on the Jags...

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